Most missions involve going somewhere and stealing something; players have the choice of doing this with stealth or guns blazing. Stealth options include tying up innocent bystanders and enemies and then leading them to where they won’t be discovered and/or destroying security cameras or disabling them from a security room. Bystander and enemy awareness is clearly communicated by a colored eye that appears when someone starts to notice a player. Once a shot is fired or enemies become hostile, the stealth option disappears, and cops start to arrive. The police response resembles that of the Grand Theft Auto series; the greater the crime committed, the higher the star rating and the deadlier the police become.
The mechanics of multiplayer missions are surprisingly simple. While characters do have unique perks that affect their survival and performance, everyone on the team can do the same basic things. Each player will need to sneak, shoot foes, fill their bags with loot, deliver the bags to the getaway vehicle, and then evacuate as a team. Downed players can be revived a few times, but running out of lives will take you out of commission for the rest of the mission. As long as the crew still completes the mission, the dead player will receive their portion of the rewards and return to life for the next mission. Most missions are fairly easy on Normal difficulty, so bringing a less skilled player along won’t tank the team’s chances of success. Missions that involve waiting for a drill to open a vault tend to be tougher and more stressful, however, because the police presence ramps up continually while the drill slowly does its thing.
Every successful multiplayer mission contributes to the player’s overall level – a relatively recent addition to the game. Upon leveling up, players can choose from three randomized rewards of varying rarities. These include various types of weapons and character skins. Unlocking items via leveling up only makes them available for purchase, however. To actually use these items, players must buy them with money earned from multiplayer missions. The long-term goal is to unlock all items, of which there are over 200. The full list of unlockables is helpfully available on the main menu. Climbing through the levels and earning enough money to buy everything will keep players coming back for a long time.
After a year of updates, Crime Boss: Rockay City has become a well-oiled and addictive heist game. The campaign has a unique structure and good replayability, and cinematics can be skipped if you don’t care about all the criminal braggadocio. Co-op missions are nice and short for the most part, and the option to play them individually or in a set gives a welcome amount of choice in game session length. The only thing the game lacks a bit at launch is mission variety. Some missions and locations tend to repeat heavily in the shuffle playlist. It’s likely that the DLC (which we haven’t played yet) helps with the variety issue, and the game’s roadmap indicates that more content will arrive in the future. Right now, Crime Boss is a slick-looking game with intuitive gameplay. Find a crew to play with (or even just join up with randoms), and you’re bound to have a deliciously ruthless good time together.
Crime Boss: Rockay City sells for $19.99 on Steam and $39.99 on Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5, and Epic. The Steam version is fully Steam Deck compatible.
A Steam download code was provided by the publisher for this review.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Up to four players can engage in turf wars, heists, and organized hits. Downed players can be revived by other players until they run out of lives. Leveling up in the co-op modes will unlock weapons and skins.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.